FOOD

On my way to the lavong monastery in Sikkim, i met these 2 little kids- the little Buddha. People in Sikkim are very friendly and interactive. These kids insisted on guiding me to the other monastery. While on our way, we passed by a shop and i told the kids to pick up anything they would like to eat, as a token of thanks. Further on the way, these kids brought 3 packets of drinks with their own money and handed me one. When asked why did they buy 1 for me, they said since you paid last time, it’s our responsibility to return the favor. It amazes me how such young kids can have such mature thinking. This truly proves that Bhutan is indeed one of the world’s happiest countries.

It’s one of the most consecrated place I think have been so far on my journey. Most of the religious and spiritual places of Buddhism and Hinduism are situated on top of the hill considering the spiritual energy of the place, but among all those this monastery is quite uniquely sets onto the cliff. this 3 century old monastery is easily highlighted far from the village because of its perfect place on a nude cliff niche with having dense forest all around..

the only way to reach there is to track about a 2 hour from the down village all the way up to the monastery. being bicycle traveler i had to park my bicycle down and take all my luggage all the way up with me as i wanted to camp and stay overnight on top. this is the time i find carrying rucksack on a bicycle appropriate then special side luggage bag for cycle, because when you are not on a bicycle you can carry all your things easily.

While tracking for 2 hours through dense forest, the monastery complex surprises each time with a different view. by the time i visited the monastery it was already dark and time to pitch my tent. i was not sure weather camping over there was allowed or not. there were nobody staying inside the complex and were not any human settlement around. the only people who were staying nearby monastery were the monks and this 2 police guard in the cliff house shown in this picture.

Doing their duties at one of the most isolate place, these two police man were so frustrated at the most beautiful place that after finishing their duties you can see in picture that both were on phone, talking and chating with their girlfriend as mobile is the only escape.

I went to ask them for the camping permission and they were so happy knowing that i am gonna camp and stay there overnight as they have got at least someone as a company. they didn’t just say yes for camping but they helped me to find the good place to pitch tent and this is what that place was.

we spent whole evening together with singing songs and dancing together. When it was actually time for pitching the tent, one of them asked that how much time does it takes as they had not seen it before. I never thought even that in how less time it can construct. so i simply told them that it just takes 1.5 minute only and they were not believing. so i told them to take a video of me preparing tent to count the actual time. i was surprised that it actually takes only 2 minutes after taking this video.

After setting up my tent i started preparing my dinner and they said not to prepare because they also had to prepare for them at their place with which they can cook mine as i was solo. so this is what i got served from them. I know that it doesn’t seems something really special food to you but believe me, i was such hungry after tracking that it would have fine if they would have offered me only a boil rice.

which farmer doesn’t care about the money through mass production and think about the health of the people ? In Sikkim the farmers are not having any thought of using pesticides in the practice of farming. So all the local fruits and vegetables we gets in the state are 100% organic. It is healthy practice but in front of high demand the low production leads to high value of the products and we can easily see that in Sikkim.

these are the some of the flower exhibitions picture on the declaration day of Sikkim as a first organic city of India at Gangtok. I tried one organic orange there and i could actually make a difference with the one which we get in other urban cities.

As I have to go back college in 20 days i decided to go Mumbai by train for Mumbai-Goa bicycle expedition. The moment I reached and came out of the Mumbai railway station something very unexpected happened with me. There were few slum kids who came to me and start begging, as I am quickly notable because of my long hair and touring bike, within a minute few other came and there was 15 at a time. I was so sorry to help them out anyway.the moment they realised that, they started attacking me all together to snatch something. Fortunately everything was packed in a single bag so they couldn’t snatch anything and I managed to escape.
It has not ended yet. By the time I managed to escape from there I saw one another’s coconut bicycle carrier fell down and I could see coconut spreaded on whole width of the road. Within a 10 sec. There were no coconut on the road as well as in a hand of coconut man.all kids took one or two and went missing..

On the 5th day of my journey, after cycling for around 4-5 hours in the morning, I was pretty hungry. Looked for food around but there wasn’t any sign of food joints for around 30-40 kms, then I came across a tiny shop (shown in the picture) in some remote village of Polo forest, just offering food packets and Parle-gs. It had been a while since I had Parle-g.

Bought 2 packets of the biscuits available and a bottle of water and started pedaling again. Eating biscuits with a hungry stomach and pedaling hard, the experience had never been this amazing.It was for the first time I realized, that even Parle-g could taste this sweet.

On the days that followed, Parle-g was a companion in my journey. I always carried a packet or two with me.